Parcelling virtual carbon in the pollution haven hypothesis

Luis Antonio López, Guadalupe Arce and Jorge Zafrilla ()

Energy Economics, 2013, vol. 39, issue C, 177-186

Abstract: The methodology proposed in this paper allows us to parcel the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) into a bi-regional input–output framework to analyse whether the specialisation of countries in different stages of production and/or in final goods trading generates an increase or a decrease in global emissions as a consequence of international trade. We apply the model to the Spain–China trade relationship as it existed in 2005, finding a PHH of 29,667 KtCO2. If this trade had not existed (so each country had met its demand for intermediate and final goods), global emissions would have been reduced by these 29,667 KtCO2. Of this PHH, 43.5% corresponds to imports of final goods; 32.4% is related to imports of intermediate goods for the last stage of production; the remainder, 24.1%, is caused by global value chains (GVC) between the countries. Only 3229 KtCO2 of PHH emissions are linked to domestic emissions from the sector in which the imports are produced; the rest is explained by domestic linkages or successive rounds of domestic production, which supports the existence of an indirect PHH. Together with a trade growth in the last years, the fall of trade barriers would have implied a transformation of global production chains that have boosted global emissions.

Keywords: Pollution haven hypothesis; Global value chain; Input–output; Spain‐China trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 L9 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988313000923
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:39:y:2013:i:c:p:177-186

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2013.05.006

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().